Wildfires have broken out across southern Europe as a heatwave grips the region. This animation created using images from the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites show the live blaze and aftermath of wildfires that devastated an area about 35 km northeast of Athens, Greece, in mid-August.
The images from 14 August show the blaze and billowing smoke, which extends far south pushed by strong winds.
Vegetation appears red in the false-colour images from 19 August, and burn scars covering an area of over 2900 hectares appear black.
Satellites like Sentinel-2 allow these crisis situations to be carefully monitored and mapped, at both regional and global scales. Sentinel-2 imagery combined with data from Copernicus contributing missions are being used to produce maps of this recent fire through the Copernicus Emergency Management Service for damage assessment.
Summer wildfires are common in Greece. Earlier in August, Sentinel-2 captured smoke and burn scars on the island of Kythira. See the images here.